Original version presented at the 1997 Paradox Seminar - Arcosanti, Arizona

The Process Dynamics of the Convergence Syndrome -Primary Catalyst of the Emergent Evolutionary Event Horizon

There is a state of change at hand, the rate and complexity of which is an acceleration vector never before experienced in human history. The relationships between rapidly evolving technologies, ever exapnding volumes and complexities of of information resources, and socio-economic system substrates are going to reshape almost every aspect of life as it is currently understood to be. To study the nuances and implications of this synergistic codependancy is to become an adaptable entity, capable of evolving and utilizing the tools embedded in this interactive, bi-directional experiential knowledge conveyance system

For better or for worse, we will collectively know, well within our current lifetimes, and indeed, quite likely within a short handful of years, what these various test increments will consist of, how they will be negotiated, and what the outcome shall be.

As a macro-scale composite of synergistically co-dependant dynamics and interrelated process increments, thesevectors emerge as primary indicator points of the transition threshold upon which we are now poised to transgress, and be tested by, as iterations of an evolutionary event stream we are designed to negotiate, and if successfully negotiated, we collectively emerge as a more robust organism.

Incremental marker points of human development have been recorded throughout the span of recorded history, as reference coordinates by which the scale, complexity, and velocity of such evolutionary development can be measured. Compression is now occurring, however, in both temporal and functional domains. The incremental partitioning of major transitional thresholds which may have at one point been measured in terms of millennia, then centuries, and more recently, in decades, is now compressing down time spans of a few years, and perhaps in the near term, increments of months and weeks.

Proportional with an acceleration of temporal compression is an acceleration of functional complexity, or what I refer to here as the "convergence syndrome". As a process, events, technologies, belief systems, cultural and societal paradigms, even the very definitions of life itself, are becoming ever more interconnected and interdependent on a global scale. In this newly emerging domain, nothing is isolated or autonomous. As vector coordinates on anenormous existence manifold, in which all forms of life "here" (as it is currently interpreted to be), and in parallel domains, any perturbations within this manifold cause a wavefront to be propagated throughout this manifold, eventually affecting all of the other nodes embedded within.

All affectations of activity and process dynamics have an effect, and a counter effect, just as can be witnessed in the most fundamental rules of physics in the observable universe, but is now being translated upon the populations of the planet, and indeed, the planet itself. The interstitial graticule spacing of this existence manifold, or what might be referred to here as mesh granularity, is compressing as well, in direct proportion with the temporal compression, and functional complexity factors. Indeed, thisproportional increase in mesh granularity of the existence manifold can be visualized as an topological index of trend status, and plotted as such, as an artifact of this process.

The acceleration vectors indicated by this composite of interacting dynamic factors in this existence manifold may be in a state of flux as to the precise rate of increase inherent in these indicators, but the trend topologies to be recognized in this manifold, and their associated rates of acceleration, do tend to suggest a culmination into a verticle vector, a singularity "convergence point" threshold boundary, at which point the critical mass of existence as it is currently understood to be will be extruded through a seriesof evolutionary "test" increments, each one of which representing anincrease of amplitude in functional complexity, and a compression in temporal partitioning, greater than the increment preceding it.

The outcome of this rapid succession of test increments, threshold boundaries to be encountered and negotiated, will determine whether we continue to the next great increment of evolutionary process, as an experiment on this particular world at thisparticular moment in time, or simply go into failure mode, perhaps to re-evolve to some new lifeform entity countless millenia from now. In terms of galactic, and indeed universal scale, this is not unusal at all, or even particularly significant.

We are but a speck of life, very much like a bit of plankton adrift in the sea of the universe. Other worlds and their respective lifeforms and ecosystems have evolved to levels of incremental development far beyond what can be currently witnessed here, and many others have no doubt lapsed into complete failure mode in far more relatively primitive stages of development.

What is significant, however, is that from the perspective of being here on this world, at this moment, is that never before in the known history of this world and its current inhabitants have the threshold of transition by which the very future of this current world are about to be determined and measured within the reach of its current inhabitants.

"Process Modalities of Applied Computational Resources which Mimic the Physiologies of Living Systems", as a mechanism for communication to real and synthetic entities

Development of Linguistic Systems and Communications Protocols with Societies of Artificial Lifeforms and Synthetic Sentients , as a precursory requirement for Interaction with alien species

Beyond the New Event HorizonCultural change is surpassing expectations we made only a few years ago. The useful lifetime of knowledge itself is being compressed into smaller windows. We are rapidly entering an age where decision rendering, a mission critical process, will simply exceed human capacity. At the threshold of that event horizon, the ability to have access to the virtual terraform, populated by an ever increasing ecology of intelligent agents and sentient entities, will no longer be an interesting luxury. It will become an absolute requirement